Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel - Brilliant Classics Home > Catalogue > Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel Readings: State Library of Victoria Cnr La Trobe & Swanston Str Melbourne VIC Music Store at the Opera Centre Leonardo da Vinci 28 Tel Aviv 03-6927888 About this release Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov showed musical promise as a child, but the pursuit of a Naval career meant that much of his grounding in musical theory was gained in between various tours of duty. Although best known in the Western world for his nationalist orchestral works, Rimsky-Korsakov brought Russian opera to the fore, so that by the end of his life, the genre was flourishing. The Golden Cockerel, written between 15 October 1906 and 29 August 1907, was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s tale and caused concern among the Russian authorities, with the story detailing the murder of a Tsar and providing a critique of the power associated with Tsarism.

This predictably led to trouble with the censor, which demanded that the prologue, epilogue and fourteen lines of the libretto should be cut; Rimsky-Korsakov refused and the work was permitted to only appear in print. At the centre of the opera is the juxtaposition of two of the characters and their respective musical language: that of the rigid marches demonstrating the power of King Dodon and the delicate, ethereal chromaticism of the Queen of Shemaka, designed to sound other-worldly. This recording includes the opera in full, containing none of the cuts demanded by the censor. Of this 1985 recording by the Sofia National Opera, conducted by Dimiter Manolov, BBC Music Magazine wrote that ‘the famous 19-minute coloratura show-piece … is beautifully encompassed’ by Elena Stoyanova, who sings the role of the Queen of Shemakha. The role of King Dodon is sung by Hungarian bass Nikolai Stoilov. Other information: - Recorded in 1985. - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is one of the most important Russian composers of romantic opera.

His operas, often on themes taken from Russian folklore and fairy tales, abound in colourful and atmospheric scenes, with just the right tinge of spicy Russian melodic flavours. - The Golden Cockerel, based on a tale by Pushkin, was censored by the Russian authorities, accused of hidden political motives. This performance offers the complete, uncut version of the opera, one of Rimsky’s finest and best known. Excellent performance by great Bulgarian voices and forces, a superb recording from the Balkanton catalogue. - The Booklet includes the synopsis of the opera, as well as notes on the composer and the work. The Golden Cockerel: Prologue: Introduction: I am the master magician (Astrologer) 2 The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: The King’s monologue: I have summoned you here (King Dodon) The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: Guidon’s plan: Great father (Guidon/King Dodon/Chorus of Boyars) The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: Afron’s plan (King Dodon/Boyars/Afron/Polkan/Guidon) 5 The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: Hail, Majesty!

Sire! (Astrologer) – Oh, that’s a fairy tale (King Dodon/The Golden Cockerel) 6 The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: Cock-a-doodle-do! The coast is clear – The Parrot Scene (The Golden Cockerel/King Dodon/Amelfa) 7 The Dodon’s siesta – Cock-a-doodle-do! Beware! (Chorus of the People/Amelfa/The Golden Cockerel) – Our King! Father of the people! (Polkan/King Dodon/Afron/Chorus of Boyars/Guidon) The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: King Dodon’s dream (The Golden Cockerel/King Dodon/Amelfa/Chorus) 9 The Golden Cockerel: Act 1: The Cockerel’s scene: Cock-a-doodle-do!... Oh! What misfortune! (The Golden Cockerel/Chorus of the People/Polkan/King Dodon) Disk 2 1 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: Soldiers’ chorus: The silent night is ehispering fearful things (Chorus of Soldiers) – What terrible sight is this?

– Behold, a tent! (King of Dodon/Polkan/Chrous of Soldiers) 2 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: The Queen of Shemakha’s entrance: Hail, O ray of morning sun (Queen of Shemakha/King of Dodon/Polkan) The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: Whose heart rich in love (Queen of Shemakha/King Dodon) 4 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: Dance of the Queen of Shemakha: At first I shall dance with a lowered veil (Queen of Shemakha/King of Dodon) 5 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: Sisters, who limps beside the resplendent beauty? (Chorus of Slaves) – Ho! Polkan! Sound the trumpers in victory (King Dodon/Chorus of Soldiers) The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: It is terrible, brothers (Chorus of the People/Amelfa) 7 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: Who is that stranger standing there?

(Queen of Shemakha/King Dodon) – Great King, it is I (Astrologer) 8 The Golden Cockerel: Act 2: King Dodon’s death: Ha, ha, ha! (Queen of Shemakha) – I’ve beaten him to death (King Dodon/The Golden Cockerel/Chorus of the People) Rimsky-Korsakov - The Golden Cockerel: description -- Classic Cat The Golden Cockerel Zolotoi petushok. Le Coq d'Or. Get hard-to-find cd's at ArkivMusic Buy sheetmusic for this work at SheetMusicPlus v • d • e The Golden Cockerel ( Russian : Золотой Петушок, Zolotoy Petushok) is an opera in three acts (with short prologue and even shorter epilogue) by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov . The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky and is based on Alexander Pushkin 's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (which is based on two chapters of Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving ).

The opera was completed in 1907, and received its premiere in Moscow in 1909, thus after the composer's death. Previously, the opera was commonly performed in French under the still recognized title Le Coq d'Or. Contents 15 External links Composition history Rimsky-Korsakov had considered his previous opera, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (1907) to be his final artistic statement in the medium, and, indeed, this work has been called a "summation of the nationalistic operatic tradition of Glinka and The Five ." [1] However the political situation in Russia at the time inspired him to take up the pen to compose a "razor-sharp satire of the autocracy, of Russian imperialism , and of the Russo-Japanese war." [2] (1799—1837) Four factors influenced Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to write this opera-ballet: Pushkin – Rimsky-Korsakov’s other works inspired by Alexander Pushkin's poems, especially Tsar Saltan , had been very successful. The Golden Cockerel had the same magic.

Bilibin – Ivan Bilibin had already produced artwork for the Golden Cockerel, and this conjured up the same traditional Russian folk flavours as those in Tsar Saltan. Russo-Japanese War – Under Tsar Nicholas II Russia became involved in a war with Japan. This war was highly unpopular amongst the Russian people . It proved to be a military disaster , and Russia was eventually defeated. (In the Golden Cockerel, King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre-emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and there is huge chaos and bloodshed on the battlefield. The king himself gives more attention to his personal pleasures, and comes to a sticky end.) Russian Revolutionary Activity in 1905 – Many Russian people were not only upset by the Russo-Japanese War, but also by poor living conditions. On January 9, 1905, several thousand people, led by a priest, demonstrated peacefully in the Palace Square in St Petersburg . They tried to hand in a petition asking for better working conditions, an eight hour day, a minimum wage , and the prohibition of child labour .

However, more than 1,000 persons were shot by the Tsarist troops, and the date has become known as Bloody Sunday (1905) . News of this massacre spread rapidly — there was an uprising in Odessa, where the sailors in the battleship Potemkin took over the ship and fired on the headquarters of the tsarist troops. Again, there was a massacre of people on the Odessa steps . The Students in the St Petersburg Conservatoire also demonstrated against the Czar, and Rimsky Korsakov supported their protest. For this he was dismissed from his post as head of the Conservatoire. Alexander Glazunov and Anatoly Lyadov resigned and left with him. See also Russian Revolution of 1905 . Rimsky-Korsakov decided to create a work exposing the disastrous tsarist regime, and in 1906 he started work on his Golden Cockerel opera. It was finished in 1907. The opera was immediately banned by the Palace, and was not allowed to be staged — the resemblance between the Czar and the foolish King Dodon was too close.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s health was probably affected by this, and he was dead by the time it was performed two years later. Performance history The premiere of the opera in Moscow took place on 7 October ( O.S. 24 September), 1909 at the Solodovnikov Theatre presented by the Zimin Opera . The conductor was Emil Cooper and set designs were by Ivan Bilibin . Several weeks later, the opera was presented at the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow on 6 November, 1909 conducted by Vyacheslav Suk and set designs by Konstantin Korovin . The London and Paris premieres were both given in 1914, but the Paris production was as an Opera-Ballet , with Mikhail Fokin (Michel Fokine). The United States premiere took place in the Metropolitan Opera on March 6, 1918 with Marie Sundelius in the title role, Adamo Didur and Maria Barrientos in the actual leads, and Pierre Monteux conducting. The Met performed the work regularly through 1945 with all of the performances prior to World War II being sung in French.

However, during the work's final season in the Met reopertoire the performances were sung in English. After 1945 the opera was never (so far) revived by the Met, but received revival at the New York City Opera in 1967–1971 (all performances in English) when Beverly Sills sang the role of the Queen of Shemakha to Norman Treigle 's Dodon, Julius Rudel conducting Tito Capobianco 's production. Instrumentation chorus, silent roles Note on names: Pushkin spelled Dodon's name as Dadon. The association of the revised spelling Dodon in the libretto with the bird the Dodo is likely intentional. Shemakha is a noun, denoting a place. Shemakhan is an adjectival usage. Synopsis Time: Unspecified Place: In the thrice-tenth kingdom, a far off place (beyond thrice-nine lands) in Russian fairy tales .

Act 1 Ivan Bilibin 's stage set In the short prologue, after quotation in the orchestra of the most important leitmotifs, a mysterious Astrologer comes before the curtain announcing to the audience that although they are going to see and hear a fictional tale from long ago, his story has a valid and true moral. The bumbling King Dodon talks himself into believing that his country is in danger from the neighbouring State governed by the beautiful Queen of Shemakha. He asks for the advice of the Astrologer, who gives him a magic Golden Cockerel, which promises to look after his interests. The Golden Cockerel confirms that Queen of Shemakha certainly has some territorial ambitions, so King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre-emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and sends his army, led by his two sons, to start the battle. Act 2 Tsar Dadon meets the Shemakha queen However, his sons are both so inept that they manage to kill each other on the battlefield.

King Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but further bloodshed is averted because the Golden Cockerel ensures that the old king becomes besotted when he actually sees the beautiful Queen. The Queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance — which tempts the King to try and partner her, but he is clumsy and makes a complete mess of it. The Queen realises that she can take over Dodon’s country without further fighting — she engineers a marriage proposal from Dodon, which she coyly accepts. Act 3 The Final Scene starts with the great Bridal procession in all its splendour — and when this is reaching its conclusion, the Astrologer appears and says to the king “You promised me anything I could ask for if there could be a happy resolution of your troubles.......” “Yes, Yes,” said the king, “Just name it and you shall have it”. “Right,” said the Astrologer, “I want Queen of Shemakha!”. At this, the King flares up in fury, and strikes down the Astrologer with a blow from his mace.

The Golden Cockerel, loyal to his Astrologer master, then swoops across and pecks through the King’s jugular. The sky darkens and when light returns, both queen and cockerel disappear. In the epilogue, the Astrologer comes again before the curtain and announces the end of his story, reminding the public that what they just saw was "only an illusion," that only he and the queen were mortals and real. Principal arias and numbers Scene: "Wedding Procession" «Свадебное шествие» (Amelfa, People) Analysis Preface to The Golden Cockerel by librettist V. Belsky (1907) The purely human character of Pushkin's story, The Golden Cockerel —a tragi-comedy showing the fatal results of human passion and weakness— allows us to place the plot in any surroundings and in any period. On these points the author does not commit himself, but indicates vaguely in the manner of fairy-tales: "In a certain far-off kingdom", "in a country set on the borders of the world"....

Nevertheless, the name Dodon and certain details and expressions used in the story prove the poet's desire to give his work the air of a popular Russian tale (like Tsar Saltan), and similar to those fables expounding the deeds of Prince Bova, of Jerouslan Lazarevitch or Erhsa Stchetinnik, fantastical pictures of national habit and costumes. Therefore, in spite of Oriental traces, and the Italian names Duodo, Guidone, the tale is intended to depict, historically, the simple manners and daily life of the Russian people, painted in primitive colours with all the freedom and extravagance beloved of artists. In producing the opera the greatest attention must be paid to every scenic detail, so as not to spoil the special character of the work. The following remark is equally important. In spite of its apparent simplicity, the purpose of The Golden Cockerel is undoubtedly symbolic.

This is not to be gathered so much from the famous couplet: "Tho' a fable, I admit, moral can be drawn to fit!" which emphasises the general message of the story, as from the way in which Pushkin has shrouded in mystery the relationship between his two fantastical characters: The Astrologer and the Queen. Did they hatch a plot against Dodon? Did they meet by accident, both intent on the king's downfall? The author does not tell us, and yet this is a question to be solved in order to determine the interpretation of the work. The principal charm of the story lies in so much being left to the imagination, but, in order to render the plot somewhat clearer, a few words as to the action on the stage may not come amiss. Many centuries ago, a wizard, still alive today sought, by his magic cunning to overcome the daughter of the Aerial Powers. Failing in his project, he tried to win her through the person of King Dodon. He is unsuccessful and to console himself, he presents to the audience, in his magic lantern the story of heartless royal ingratitude.

Marina Frolova-Walker points to The Golden Cockerel as the fore-runner of the anti-psychologistic and absurdist ideas which would culminate in such 20th century 'anti-operas' as Prokofiev 's The Love for Three Oranges (1921) and Shostakovich 's The Nose (1930). In this, his last opera, Rimsky-Korsakov had laid "the foundation for modernist opera in Russia and beyond." [1] Performance practice Vladimir Pikok sang the role of the Astrologer in the premiere of the opera. The difficult role is written for a tenor altino , as the Astrologer is a eunuch . Composer's Performance Remarks (1907) The composer does not sanction any "cuts." Operatic singers are in the habit of introducing interjections, spoken words, etc. into the music, hoping thereby to produce dramatic, comic or realistic effect. Far from adding significance to the music, these additions and emendations merely disfigure it. The composer desires that the singers in all his works keep strictly to the music written for them. Metronome marks must be followed accurately.

This does not imply that artists should sing like clock-work, they are given full artistic scope, but they must keep within bounds. The composer feels it necessary to reiterate the following remark in lyrical passages, those actors who are on the stage, but not singing at the moment, must refrain from drawing the attention of the spectators to themselves by unnecessary by-play. An opera is first and foremost a musical work. The part of the Astrologer is written for a voice seldom met with, that of tenor altino . It may however be entrusted to a lyric tenor possessing a strong falsetto, for the part is written in the extremely high register. The Golden Cockerel demands a strong soprano or high mezzo-soprano voice. The dances performed by the King and Queen in the second act, must be carried out so as not to interfere with the singers breathing by too sudden or too violent movement. Staging Practices Early stagings became influential by stressing the modernist elements inherent in the opera. Diaghilev 's 1914 Paris production had the singers sitting offstage, while dancers provided the stage action.

[1] Though some in Russia disapproved of Diaghilev's interpretation, and Rimsky-Korsakov's widow threatened to sue, the production was considered a milestone. Stravinsky was to expand on this idea in the staging of his own Renard (1917) and Les Noces (1923), in which the singers are unseen, and mimes or dancers perform on stage. [3] Derived works Rimsky-Korsakov made the following concert arrangement: Introduction and Wedding Procession from the opera The Golden Cockerel (1907) Введение и свадебное шествие из оперы Золотой петушок After his death, A. Glazunov and M.

Shteynberg (Steinberg) compiled the following orchestral suite: Four Musical Pictures from the Opera The Golden Cockerel Четыре музыкальных картины из оперы «Золотой петушок» Tsar Dodon at home (Царь Додон у себя дома) Tsar Dodon on the march (Царь Додон в походе) Tsar Dodon with the Shemakhan Tsaritsa (Царь Додон у Шемаханской царицы) The wedding and the lamentable end of Dodon (Свадьба и печальный конец Додона) Inspiration for other works In 1978-79 the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote “Il gallo d’oro” da Rimsky-Korsakov: variazioni frivole con una fuga anarchica, eretica e perversa.

Recordings Source: 1962, Aleksey Kovalev & Yevgeny Akulov (conductor), Moscow Radio Orchestra and Chorus, Aleksey Korolev (Tsar Dodon), Yuri Yelnikov (Tsarevich Gvidon), Aleksandr Polyakov (Tsarevich Afron), Leonid Ktitorov (General Polkan), Antonina Klescheva (Amelfa), Gennady Pishchayev (Astrologer), Klara Kadinskaya (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Nina Polyakova (Golden Cockerel) 1971, Julius Rudel (conductor), Orchestra and Chorus of the New York City Opera, Norman Treigle (King Dodon), Beverly Sills (Queen Shemakha), Enrico di Giuseppe (Astrologer), Muriel Costa-Greenspon (Amelfa), Gary Glaze (Guidon), David Rae Smith (Afron), Edward Pierson (Polkan), Syble Young (Le Coq d’or); Live performance, November 9, 1971, New York (sung in English).

1985, Dimiter Manolov (conductor), Sofia National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Nikolai Stoilov (Tsar Dodon), Ljubomir Bodurov (Prince Gvidon), Emil Ugrinov (Prince Afron), Kosta Videv (General Polkan), Evgenia Babacheva (Amelfa), Lyubomir Diakovski (Astrologer), Elena Stoyanova (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Yavora Stoilova (Golden Cockerel) 1988, Yevgeny Svetlanov (conductor), Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Artur Eisen (Tsar Dodon), Arkady Mishenkin (Prince Gvidon), Vladimir Redkin (Prince Afron), Nikolay Nizinenko (General Polkan), Nina Gaponova (Amelfa), Oleg Biktimirov (Astrologer), Yelena Brilova (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Irina Udalova (Golden Cockerel) The actual Shemakha There is an actual city of Shemakha (also known as "Şamaxı", "

Schemacha" and "Shamakhy") which is the capital of the Shamakhi Rayon of Azerbaijan .

At the time when Pushkin wrote the orinianl poem on which the opera is based, it was an important city and the capital of what was to become later the Baku Governorate . However, the realm of that name, ruled by the queen in the poem and the opera, bears little resemblance to the actual city and area or to any actual ruler there; Pushkin seems to have picked up the name as a convenient name for an exotic fictional kingdom. Notes ^ a b c Frolova-Walker, Marina (2005). "11. Russian opera; The first stirrings of modernism". in Mervyn Cooke. The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-521-78393-3 . ^ Maes, Francis; Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans (translators) (2002) [1996]. "8. "A Musical Conscience" Rimsky-Korsakov and the Belyayev Circle". A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

p. 178. ISBN 0-520-21815-9 . ^ Maes, Francis; Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans (translators) (2002) [1996]. "8. "Russia's Loss" The Musical Emigration". A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 275. ISBN 0-520-21815-9 . References Abraham, Gerald (1936). "XIV. — The Golden Cockerel". Studies in Russian Music. London: William Reeves / The New Temple Press. pp. 290–310. External links The Golden Cockerel - Rimsky-Korsakov The Golden Cockerel (French title: Le Coq d'Or) An Opera by Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov Opera pantomime in three acts with prologue and epilogue. Produced in May, 1910, at Zimins Private Theatre, Moscow. Music by Rimsky-Korsakov.

CHARACTERS VOEVODA POLKAN (the General) Baritone AMELFA (the royal housekeeper) Contralto THE ASTROLOGER Tenor THE QUEEN OF SHEMAKHAN . Soprano THE GOLDEN COCK .. Soprano "The Golden Cockerel" (or "Le Coq dOr") was Rimsky-Korsakoffs last opera. The censor refused to sanction its performance during the composers lifetime and his difficulties with the authorities in this matter are supposed to have hastened his death. When the work was given in Petrograd it was thought to be over-taxing for the singers who are obliged to dance, or for the dancers who are obliged to sing. M. Fokine ingeniously devised the plan of having all the singers seated at each side of the stage, while the dancers interpreted, in pantomime, what was sung. In spite of the protests made by the composers family, this was done in Paris, London, and New York. The opera is composed to a libretto, by V. Bielsky, based upon a well-known poem by Pushkin.

In a preface to the book the author says: "The purely human nature of Pushkins Golden Cock -- that instructive tragicomedy of the unhappy consequences following upon mortal passions and weaknesses -- permits us to place the plot in any region and in any period." King Dodon, lazy and gluttonous, is oppressed by the cares of state. Warlike neighbours harass him with their attacks. Holding council in the hall of his palace with his Boyards, he asks the advice first of one son, then the other. But the wise old General disagrees with the solutions suggested by the young princes. Soon the entire assembly is in an uproar. The astrologer then appears and offers the King a golden cock. The bird has the power to foretell events, and in case of danger will give warning. The King is overjoyed. From a spire in the capital the bird sends out various messages. At its bidding citizens now rush for their weapons, now continue peaceful occupations. Dodons bed is brought upon the stage, and the monarch relieved of all responsibility goes to sleep, after having been tucked in by the royal housekeeper. Suddenly the cock sounds the war alarm.

The rudely awakened sovereign first sends his sons, then goes himself. Dodons army fares ill. In the second act, the moonlight in a narrow pass reveals the bodies of his two sons. At dawn, Dodon notices a tent under the hillside. The King thinks it is the tent of the enemy leader, but to his astonishment, a beautiful woman emerges. The lovely Queen lures on the aged Dodon, mocks at his voice, and forces him to dance, until he falls exhausted to the ground. Finally she agrees to become his bride. The third act shows the populace preparing to welcome Dodon. There is a wonderful procession led by Dodon and the Queen, followed by a grotesque train of giants and dwarfs. Soon the Queen is bored. The astrologer returns, claiming a reward for his magic bird. He demands the Queen. Dodon kills the astrologer by a blow on the head with his sceptre, but this does not improve his position with his bride. With an ominous cry, the bird flies towards the King and fells him with one blow from his beak. A thunderclap is followed by darkness. When light returns both Queen and cock have disappeared.

The people lament the death of the King. In the epilogue the resuscitated astrologer announces that the story is only a fairy tale and that in Dodons kingdom only the Queen and himself are mortals. Search this Site 94431 rimsky korsakov bl2 v4 by Klassiek.nl - issuu issuu Issuu on Google+ 6 Cock-a-doodle-do! The coast is clear – The Parrot Scene (The Golden Cockerel/King Dodon/Amelfa) 7 The Dodon’s siesta – Cock-a-doodle-do! Beware! (Chorus of the People/Amelfa/The Golden Cockerel) – Our King! Father of the people! (Polkan/King Dodon/Afron/ Chorus of Boyars/Guidon) 8 King Dodon’s dream (The Golden Cockerel/King Dodon/Amelfa/Chorus) 9 The Cockerel’s scene: Cock-a-doodle-do!... Oh! What misfortune!

(The Golden Cockerel/Chorus of the People/Polkan/King Dodon) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1844–1908 The Golden Cockerel Opera in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue Libretto: Vladimir Belsky after Alexander Pushkin King Dodon ....................................................................................NIKOLAI STOILOV Prince Guidon........................................................................LYUBOMIR BODOUROV Afron ...................................................................................................EMIL UGRINOV Polkan .....................................................................................................KOSTA VIDEV Astrologer ..............................................................................LYUBOMIR DYAKOVSKI Queen of Shemakha.....................................................................ELENA STOYANOVA The Golden Cockerel ....................................................................YAVORA STOILOVA Amelfa .....................................................................................EVGENIA BABACHEVA Compact Disc 2 Dimiter Manolov Compact Disc 1 Prologue 1 Introduction: I am the master magician (Astrologer) 2 3 4 5 2 Act 1 The King’s monologue: I have summoned you here (King Dodon) Guidon’s plan: Great father (Guidon/King Dodon/Chorus of Boyars) Afron’s plan (

King Dodon/Boyars/Afron/Polkan/Guidon) Hail, Majesty!

Sire! (Astrologer) – Oh, that’s a fairy tale (King Dodon/The Golden Cockerel) 46’17 4’30 3’04 2’49 5’36 6’10 Act 2 1 Soldiers’ chorus: The silent night is ehispering fearful things (Chorus of Soldiers) – What terrible sight is this? – Behold, a tent! (King of Dodon/Polkan/Chrous of Soldiers) 2 The Queen of Shemakha’s entrance: Hail, O ray of morning sun (Queen of Shemakha/King of Dodon/Polkan) 3 Whose heart rich in love (Queen of Shemakha/King Dodon) 4 Dance of the Queen of Shemakha: At first I shall dance with a lowered veil (Queen of Shemakha/King of Dodon) 5 Sisters, who limps beside the resplendent beauty? (Chorus of Slaves) – Ho! Polkan!

Sound the trumpers in victory (King Dodon/Chorus of Soldiers) 6 It is terrible, brothers (Chorus of the People/Amelfa) 7 Who is that stranger standing there? (Queen of Shemakha/King Dodon) – Great King, it is I (Astrologer) 8 King Dodon’s death: Ha, ha, ha! (Queen of Shemakha) – I’ve beaten him to death (King Dodon/The Golden Cockerel/ Chorus of the People) Epilogue 9 There, my story’s ended! (Astrologer) 5’17 8’16 19’01 12’14 7’23 2’28 9’11 5’49 5’42 2’03 3 The Golden Cockerel ‘Power is only a shadow’. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov chose as a motto for his opera, The Golden Cockerel, a quotation from Gogol’s tale May night: ‘A good song (...) it’s only a pity that, in it, authority is mentioned in unseemly words’.

But later he withdrew this, because he did not wish to waken the sleeping dogs of the censor – after all, this fairy-tale opera not only tells of the killing of a Tsar (even if by a fabled beast, this same golden cockerel), although the work as a whole is wrapped in the garb of symbolism, but clearly criticises Tsarism and the overestimation of power in general. The censors also demanded that the composer should cut fourteen lines of the libretto, written in verse by Vladimir Belsky, as well as the prologue and epilogue. As Rimsky-Korsakov did not propose to do this, permission to perform The Golden Cockerel was refused him. The work was allowed to appear only in print. In any case, Rimsky-Korsakov had written no more operas in 1906, indeed had wished to give up composing completely; the 62-year-old felt his creative powers waning. Moreover, he was disheartened by political events at this time in Russia, particularly the suppression of the 1905 revolt, during which he had been much involved in the people’s cause.

However, he then became so fascinated by Alexander Pushkin’s fable, written in 1834, of the golden cockerel and the ethereal Queen of Shemakha who mocks all human power, that he was fired with inspiration: on 15 October 1906 he sketched the first ideas, four days later he commissioned Vladimir Belsky to write the libretto, and by 29 August 1907 he had completed the opera. In the composer’s lifetime The Golden Cockerel was heard only in extracts, and purely in concert form. In the preface to the first printed edition of the work, published by Jurgenson in 1908 (the year of Rimsky-Korsakov’s death), he had stipulated: ‘No alterations of any kind may be made either in the vocal score or the orchestral score. Both the vocal and orchestral scores must always remain in their original form: the same also applies to the libretto’. After the composer’s death this was certainly not observed: the first performance, on 7 October 1909 in Moscow by Sergei Simin’s private opera company, took place with the cuts ordered by the censorship.

In 1914 the Diaghilev company then performed the work in Paris as a ballet-opera with Mikhail Fokine’s choreography; in the same year followed performances in London, four years later in New York, and in 1923 in Berlin, under Leo Blech. Sigrid Neef relates in her basic Handbook of Russian and Soviet opera 4 (Berlin 1985) that in a 1931 production in Moscow, the astrologer who introduces and concludes the opera – a prototype of the Russian intellectual in Tsarist times – appeared in the make-up of Rimsky-Korsakov as ‘an imperfect attempt to bring the time of the opera’s creation into the stage action’ (Neef). Recently the work has gained a secure place in the repertoire of international operahouses. Two basic musical characters confront each other in The Golden Cockerel. The realm of Tsar Dodon, a manifestation of domination and power, is characterised by dark, massive sonority, by ‘rhythms that tend to become fixed’ (Neef) and by the use of musical particles that signify rigidity and inflexibility, such as marches.

The realm of the Queen of Shemakha, the ‘daughter of the air’ who symbolises Nature, is represented by delicately coloured, airy, seemingly intangible iridescent chromatic sounds. For Rimsky-Korsakov and his contemporaries, chromaticism was considered the colour of the Orient, and the Queen has all the traits of Oriental womanhood (Shemakha was the name of the earlier capital of the Tsarist Khans in what is now known as Azerbaijan): for Russian intellectuals at the beginning of this century, the Orient was a symbol of renewal. All in all, in The Golden Cockerel Rimsky-Korsakov brought to perfection his compositional method: to relate a fable by tone-colours, characteristic harmonies and instrumental relationships so ‘that each important situation and figure has its own characteristic sound aura… In Act I the musical elements are so fused by an elaborate principle of repetition and confirmation of previous material that they can be identified with the intended extra-musical content’ (Neef).

Act 2, devoted to the Queen of Shemakha, has the function of an ethereal intermezzo, and in Act 3 the previously heard leitmotifs are taken up in new combinations, so that manifold polytonal structures are developed. 5 Synopsis Prologue The astrologer appears before the curtain, introduces himself as the producer of the play to follow, and invites the audience to puzzle out the proceedings (Entry of the astrologer, track 1). Act 1. A hall in the palace of the Tsar/King Dodon. Dodon, once a daredevil, has become old and weary, and his kingdom is threatened by enemies (King Dodon’s monologue, track 2). The plans of his sons Guidon and Afron are of no help. But the astrologer knows what to do: he presents the king with a golden cockerel which will watch over his kingdom and give warning of enemies by its crowing (Entry of the astrologer, track 5). In return, Dodon wants to grant the astrologer a wish, but the latter asks the Tsar for time to reflect.

The king, reassured, returns to rest, but is disturbed by the cock crowing. After the first and second occurence, he sends his sons into the field, but at the third cock-crow he himself has to go into battle, although a wonderfully beautiful woman has just appeared to him in a dream (Scene of the cockerel, track 9). Epilogue The astrologer appears once more before the curtain. He emphasises the irony of the events: only the fairy-tale figures of this tale were in fact real, the ‘other persons’ – that is, the mighty: the Tsar, his entourage and his subjects, without whom he wields no power – are merely shadows, ghosts, nothing. (Epilogue, track 9). 훿 Gerhard Persché Translation: Lionel Salter Act 2. A battlefield. Night. The Tsar finds his army defeated, his sons killed (Chorus of soldiers; entry of King Dodon, track 1). From a tent, in which Dodon supposes his enemy to be, emerges at dawn the same beautiful woman from his dream.

She reveals herself as the Tsarina of Shemakha, daughter of the Queen of the Air (track 2). She informs him that his sons killed each other in the battle for her favour. Despite this, Dodon offers her his heart and hand (Scene of the Queen of Shemakha, track 3; the Queen’s dance and scene of Dodon, track 4), and leads her home. Act 3. A street before the Tsar’s palace. The people are awaiting the return of the Tsar (Scene of the people, track 6). Dodon arrives without his sons but with a bride and curious figures in her retinue. The astrologer enters and demands the fulfilment of his wish: the Queen of Shemakha shall belong to him. In a fury, Dodon kills the astrologer, upon which the golden cockerel pecks the Tsar to death (Scene of the Queen of Shemakha, the Tsar and the golden cockerel, track 8). Finally the Queen of Shemakha and the golden cockerel disappear. The people remain bewildered.

6 Recording: 1985, National Radio, Sofia Produced by BALKANTON, Sofia Cover image: iStockphoto / Thinkstock  1996 Capriccio 훿 2012 Brilliant Classics 7 The Golden Cockerel - Opera - Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia The Golden Cockerel Premiere of this production: 19 Jun 2011 Libretto by Vladimir Belsky based on Alexander Pushkin’s fairy-tale The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Its libretto, by Vladimir Belsky, derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, which in turn is based on two chapters of Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. The opera was completed in 1907 and premiered in 1909 in Moscow, after the composer's death. Outside Russia it has often been performed in French as Le coq d'or.

Synopsis Time: Unspecified Place: In the thrice-tenth kingdom, a far off place (beyond thrice-nine lands) in Russian fairy tales Note: There is an actual city of Shemakha (also spelled "Şamaxı", "Schemacha" and "Shamakhy"), which is the capital of the Shamakhi Rayon of Azerbaijan. In Pushkin's day it was an important city and capital of what was to become the Baku Governorate. But the realm of that name, ruled by its queen, bears little resemblance to today's Shemakha and region; Pushkin likely seized the name for convenience, to conjure an exotic monarchy. Prolog After quotation by the orchestra of the most important leitmotifs, a mysterious Astrologer comes before the curtain and announces to the audience that, although they are going to see and hear a fictional tale from long ago, his story will have a valid and true moral. Act 1 The bumbling King Dodon talks himself into believing that his country is in danger from a neighbouring state, Shemakha, ruled by a beautiful queen.

He requests advice of the Astrologer, who supplies a magic Golden Cockerel to safeguard the king's interests. When the cockerel confirms that the Queen of Shemakha does harbor territorial ambitions, Dodon decides to pre-emptively strike Shemakha, sending his army to battle under the command of his two sons. Act 2 However, his sons are both so inept that they manage to kill each other on the battlefield. King Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but further bloodshed is averted because the Golden Cockerel ensures that the old king becomes besotted when he actually sees the beautiful Queen. The Queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance – which tempts the King to try and partner her, but he is clumsy and makes a complete mess of it. The Queen realises that she can take over Dodon’s country without further fighting – she engineers a marriage proposal from Dodon, which she coyly accepts. Act 3 The Final Scene starts with the wedding procession in all its splendour. As this reaches its conclusion, the Astrologer appears and says to Dodon, “You promised me anything I could ask for if there could be a happy resolution of your troubles ...

.” “Yes, yes,” replies the king, “Just name it and you shall have it.” “Right,” says the Astrologer, “I want the Queen of Shemakha!” At this, the King flares up in fury, and strikes down the Astrologer with a blow from his mace. The Golden Cockerel, loyal to his Astrologer master, then swoops across and pecks through the King’s jugular. The sky darkens. When light returns, queen and cockerel are gone. Epilog The Astrologer comes again before the curtain and announces the end of his story, reminding the public that what they just saw was “merely illusion,” that only he and the queen were mortals and real. © Bolshoi Theatre Banned in Moscow: Rimsky-Korsakov's 'The Golden Cockerel' Banned in Moscow: Rimsky-Korsakov's 'The Golden Cockerel' Audio selections For centuries and longer, creative artists who dared to cross certain boundaries have had to deal with both official and unofficial attacks on their.

Even in the U.S., where the first amendment tends to short circuit government attempts at censorship, both public and political outcries have at times driven books from the shelves, movies from the theaters and art from the galleries, though often only temporarily. Opera, on the other hand, may not be regarded as a particularly controversial form of expression -- especially when just about anyone can use cyberspace to express whatever opinion they like, to the entire world, in the blink of an eye. But history, and the pointed drama featured here, prove that even opera can sometimes provoke the ire of the powers that be. One famous example of an opera that faced down official censorship is Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. The play it's based on was banned in France, and the opera was a tough sell in 18th-century Vienna, even after it was toned down to meet objections about the story's insolent treatment of authority figures, and the ruling class in general. During the next century, Giuseppe Verdi faced official disapproval on a number of occasions. His opera A Masked Ball actually depicts the assassination of a monarch, the King of Sweden -- or at least it did in its original version.

To get it past the censors, Verdi had to move the action from Stockholm all the way to Boston, and turn the king into a lowly colonial governor. Verdi's Attila and Stiffelio both faced censorship on religious grounds, for their unflattering depictions of clerics -- including, in Attila, the Pope. And when it comes to religious objections to opera, those two examples are only the tip of the iceberg. There was a time, in many places, when putting religious figures and stories on stage, in any context, was flatly forbidden. As for Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, it's a fairly rare example of an opera that both offended the sensibilities of powerful, government authorities -- and may actually have been intended to do exactly that. The opera was completed immediately after the Russo-Japanese War. That conflict was a disaster for the Russian government, which was forced to give up substantial territories after unexpected and humiliating losses in battle. The Golden Cockerel may be set in a mythical kingdom, but in the Russia of 1907, the opera's story surely struck uncomfortably close to home.

It deals with a blatantly dimwitted tsar who is faced with the onset of war, and follows the seemingly absurd advice of his advisors. The result is a catastrophe which destroys both the kingdom, and the tsar himself. Not surprisingly, the government took a dim view. Though completed in 1907, the opera was initially banned, and the composer never saw it performed. It was finally staged in 1909, one year after Rimsky-Korsakov's death. On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone presents The Golden Cockerel in a production from Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. The stars are bass Vladimir Matorin as the inept Tsar Dodon, soprano Venera Gimadieva as the devious enemy Queen who steals his kingdom, and tenor Jeff Martin as the Astrologer whose advice leads Dodon to an ignominious demise.

by Bruce Scott Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d’Or [Theatre Musical de Paris-Chatelet/Nagano] Blu-ray Review Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq d’Or [Theatre Musical de Paris-Chatelet/Nagano] Blu-ray Review April 4, 2012 Audio Codec: PCM 2.0, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese Region: ABC (Region-Free) Blu-ray Release Date: March 27, 2012 List Price: $39.99 [Rating:0/5] Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures (All Blu-rayDefinition.com screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format) – The Performance [Rating:4.5/5] Le Coq d’Or (The Golden Cockerel) was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s last opera and one that he did not live to see performed.

Based on a Pushkin poem, it was intended to reflect poorly on the Czarist regime that had oppressed its population and recently come a cropper in a war with Japan. An Astrologer (Barry Banks) introduces this opera as a “fairy tale,” although it has an important message for the audience. King Dodon (bass Albert Shagidullin) is convinced that Shemakha, a neighboring country, threatens his sovereignty. The Astrologer gives the King a Golden Cockerel (Yuri Maria Saenz) for his protection, but Dodon decides to launch a preemptive strike on Shemakha, led by his sons, Princes Guidon (Ilya Levinsky) and Afron (Andre Breus). After the princes accidentally kill each other, the king takes over his forces. The Cockerel manages to get Dodon infatuated with the Queen of Shemakha (Olga Trifonova). The Queen arranges a marriage proposal so that she can take over Dodon’s country without a battle. As the wedding ceremony progresses, the Astrologer returns for his reward from Dodon: he wants the Queen of Shemakha for himself.

Dodon kills the Astrologer but is pecked to death by the Golden Cockerel. The Astrologer returns to inform the audience that everything they saw was imaginary except for himself and the Queen. This is a 2002 Theatre Musical de Paris-Chatelet production, staged as a Japanese Kabuki drama by famed actor Ennosuke Ichikawa. The kabuki concept is realized in its magnificent costumes and sets. The the exotic Rimsky-Korsakov score is well handled by conductor Kent Nagano and his forces, the Orchestre de Paris and the Marinsky Chorus of St Petersburg. The soloists are simply superb as are the audio and video recordings. Video Quality [Rating:4/5] The large cast receives lavish and colorful costumes. While the stage has minimal props, it really does not matter here since everything else is so pleasing to the eye. This is a ten-year old video so there is a little softness around the edges. The close-ups, and there are plenty, are often eye-popping in their color and detail. The camera work is also outstanding giving a continuing sense of the dramatic action.

Audio Quality [Rating:4/5] The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presents a well-balanced account of the singers and orchestra. This is a huge score and yet the details are well managed in the audio recording. The music is gorgeous and you will want to go the with multi-channel version which conveys its character far better than the PCM 2.0 track. Supplemental Materials Arthaus Musik misses an opportunity to enlighten us about this production by not providing supplements. The Definitive Word Overall: [Rating:4.5/5] As far as Le Coq d’Or goes this is the only currently available video entry. Fortunately, it is a winner in just about every respect: sight, sound, concept, and stage realization. This opera is truly a feast for the eyes and ears; thankfully, director Ichikawa and conductor Nagano make this point time and time again. If you want to get a quick idea about what makes this opera so evocative, go directly to track 11 and crank up the “Queen’s Hymn to the Sun”. In spite of a couple of wayward high notes, it is riveting.

As romantic Russian operas usually tend toward the long side, I was pleasantly surprised to get one that clocks in at less than two hours. I can assure you that the time spent watching this Blu-ray will go by very quickly tempting you, like I was tempted, to hit the replay button and watch it all over again. Highly recommended. Additional Screen Captures

Question: In which opera by Rimsky-Korsakov does 'King Dodon' appear?
Answer: 'THE GOLDEN COCKEREL'